AFI - Adam Carson

Questions: Stuart Millen

AFI are back on the road. It's been almost three years, but they're armed with brand new album Burials, and band are on fire and the fans are loving it. Formed by high school friends way back in 1991, AFI have stayed the course and are now back, better than ever.And in great news for Australia fans, the band will be heading back to this fair land for a series of shows as part of the huge 2014 Soundwave festival.

While on a night off from their current US tour, drummer Adam Carson phoned in from Portland to speak to Caught in the Mosh about the new album, touring and one of his greatest ever career highlights.

I’m going to have a guess that you’re in Portland at the moment? That’s the Burials Fall Tour?Yeah... We’re winding down this tour at the moment. We have three or four shows left.These are the first AFI shows in what, three years? Are you enjoying being back on the road?Yeah, it’s nice. We’ve been on the road for the week or so since the new album came out plus a few weeks before that. We’ve been playing really amazing shows. Really small clubs. All our fans are coming out and it seems everyone’s really happy to see us play and it feels really good to be back on stage.You’ve been playing a couple of tracks from the new album on this tour. What’s the reaction been like?The reaction’s been great. The new songs we were playing before the record came out were tracks that people could find online so the first time we started playing them people were singing along and seemed to know the songs. But know that the record is actually out we’ve been able to add a couple more songs. They seem to work into our set really well.What goes into preparing for a tour? Do you spend much time rehearsing tunes and working out setlists, or is touring just a spontaneous process that comes together while on the road?You know, we do rehearse for tours but historically we’re not the most... we’re not one of the bands that really rehearses over and over and really kills ourselves doing it. We probably should rehearse more but you know, it’s amazing how quickly everything comes back. There’s just such an enormous amount of muscle memory involved in playing. After a couple of shows we start really gelling. We started rehearsing and we hadn’t played the songs in almost three years. The first time through was a little rusty but the second time through it was like we’d never stopped playing!

Your new CD Burials was released just last week. It’s quite complex, layered, compared to Crash Love. Was it a conscious decision to move away from the raw sound of the previous album or was that just the wayit went?It wasn’t a conscious decision. As a band we never really decide what kind of record we’re going to make before we start working on the songs. We don’t really have a... we sort of enjoy having a really blank slate and just seeing what songs come out. On this one, there were a lot of songs written but of the songs we decided to keep and really refine as a band, they had a real cohesive feel. But no, it’s not pre-determined or pre-planned.In relation to the writing process for Burials, you’re in San Franciscowhile Davy and Jade are in LA. Did the physical separation have muchof an impact?No, not really. The writing process starts with Dave and Jade. It’s them sitting in a room kind of hashing things out and seeing what’s working. They’re putting melodies to chords. Once they’re happy with something, once they have something they think is worth working on, we get together as a band and further refine things. We sort of put everything together. Once there was enough material to warrant me being down in LA, I went down there and we worked together as a band.You recorded the new album at the legendary EastWest Studios with Gil Norton, who’s worked with the Pixies, Foo Fighters etc. That’s a pretty epic combination. How was the experience? It was fantastic. We were familiar with the studio. We recorded Sing the Sorrow there. The studio was called Cello at the time. It’s a great studio. There’s so much history in the rooms... and the boards... and the gear... So many great records have been made there. And Gill Norton was immediately a good fit. He seemed to understand very quickly the kind of record we were making and really approached it with well through out ideas of how to articulate the songs. It was a really great experience.Did Gil challenge you to try new things?Yeah. We did a lot of work with room compression, so the drums would have this real bombastic sound. But as a result of that the cymbals would get really out of control. So for one or two of the songs we’d have to record it in stages. I’d go through and play the kick and the snare and the toms but leave out the cymbals then go back with a different level of compression and play the cymbals. So it was kind of building the drums up, like a puzzle. But ultimately it made those particular tracks stand out.So you’re happy with the way the drums sounded...Yeah, absolutely. A lot of that was Gil’s idea. Just his suggestion to try things different ways. I’d never really recorded like that in the past. But it was our ninth record so my willingness to experiment was pretty great. I feel like I’ve made plenty of straight forward drum records and this was a chance for me to try new things.Is it something you’d do again in the future?Yeah, sure. As we’ve made more and more records, and as we search for new and interesting ways to record them, I think that what we all are most concerned with is recording the songs how they need to sound, not necessarily how we want it to be done. Every song is a puzzle and you have to find the best way to record it.

There’s a Dave Grohl quote from earlier this year that says something like kids should just go out and play music, regardless of whether they actually know how to or not. You started playing with Davey back in high school. Did you guys know what you were doing back then?Hell no! (laughs) That’s a really great quote because that’s really the truth! We started the band before we even owned instruments. We just started to play and a lot of it was just extreme naivety. We knew we weren’t good but we didn’t realise just how bad we were. But we certainly didn’t let that stop us. We wanted to make records. All the bands we liked were releasing 7” records and we wanted to do that. But we couldn’t find a label to put out records for us so we just did it ourselves. You know, we were pretty awful but we didn’t let that stop us. But over time, we got better. If we had been discouraged, if we’d been... aware of how bad we were, we probably would’ve stopped. But we knew we were doing something we enjoyed, and that was enough to keep going. I totally agree with Grohl’s comment. All that American Idol crap. People think that’s the only way they’re going to achieve success and it’s not true. You just have to get out there and play. If you’re enjoying what you’re doing, then that’s success right there.You all have your own side projects that you return to from time to time. You were in the Reckless Kind, who released Golden Age Thinking last year. It’s kind of “big band”, with brass and keys. It sounds like a lot of fun. What can you tell us about the band?Well, it was a band I was in for a couple of years, in between the AFI records. It was just fun to be part of that project. It was so different. It’s kind of a soul band. We called it heavy soul. It was fun to play with horns and different sides of instrumentation. Unfortunately though I’m not in the band any more. I was really dedicated to it but I got to a point where I was just too busy and we all agreed that it was best for the band that they find someone who was a little more permanent. But I really enjoyed it. The style, the way I was playing, was different to what I was used to doing. I was learning a lot of new things and I took a lot of that with me and I feel like I’m a better drummer because of it.You’re heading back to Australia for the Soundwave Festival next year. Many bands describe Australian summer music festivals as more of a holiday. Have you had any thoughts of what you might do between festival dates?Well, I love being in Australia. We’ve been twice and it’s something I look forward to each time now. I’d like to go to the beach. It’d be nice to leave San Francisco winter and be there for your summer. I’m looking forward to the weather. And what is it? Bondi Beach in Sydney? And you know, when we’re in Perth, I’d really like to go to the beach because I’ve never even set foot in the Indian Ocean.

You’ve been playing music for over 20 years. Do you have any favourite moments? Anything that when you look back you can’thelp but smile?Yeah, it actually happened in Australia. And I’m not just sucking up to you guys (laughs). When we did Soundwave 2010 with Jane’s Addiction, at the last show of the tour, the last song of Jane’s set was Chip Away and I got to go on stage and play drums with them. Chip Away is a song that’s all percussion, so it was me and Stephen Perkins and some of the other drummers from some of the other bands; Mike Bordin from Faith No More and Joey Castillo from the Eagles of Death Metal. The rest of Jane’s, Dave Navarro and Eric Avery, were on drums as well. And we’re all on stage in front of 25,000 people. I was on stage with one of my favourite bands ever, playing this amazing song and Perry Farrel’s just dancing around and singing and seriously, it was one of the coolest moments of my career. Of my life in general. Yeah! I was at that show. Seeing all those drummers on stage, and knowing it was Eric Avery’s last show, was just amazing!Yeah, it was one of the highlights of my life. I love that band so much. A lot of the reason I do what I do is because of that band, so sharing the stage with those guys was incredible.

Well, your next trip to Australia isn't far away. Hopefully it'll be another highlight! Thanks for chatting to us and good luck with the rest of your tour and the new album.Thanks. See you all soon!

Catch AFI at Soundwave 2014. Tickets on sale now from Soundwave and Oztix.